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EDITED  BY 

EDWIN  M.  HARTMAN 

PRINCIPAL  OF 

FRANKLIN  AND  MARSHALL  ACADEMY 
LANCASTER,  PA. 


Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States 

FIFTEENTH  AND  RACE  STREETS 
PHILADELPHIA 


! 


E£ 


1912 


/ 


“Just  where  you  stand  in  the  conflict. 
There  is  your  place! 

Just  where  you  think  you  are  useless. 
Hide  not  your  face: 

God  placed  you  there  for  a  purpose, 
Whate’er  it  may  be; 

Know  He  has  chosen  you  for  it. 

Work  loyally,” 


Is  It  W orth  While? 

Edited  by  Principal  Edwin  M.  Hartman. 

IN  Uganda,  Africa,  the  missions  of  the 
English  Church  have  probably  the 
largest  congregation  worshipping 
under  one  roof  in  the  world. 

About  twenty-five  years  ago  there 
was  not  a  Christian  convert  in  Korea.  Now 
there  are  more  than  200,000,  and  the  number  is 
increasing  at  the  rate  of  about  30  per  cent, 
each  year. 

About  one  year  ago  the  first  Christian 
Church  in  Seoul,  Korea,  numbering  3,000 
members,  gave  up  1200  members  to  form  a 
new  congregation.  The  parent  congregation 
has  again  gained  as  many  new  members  as  it 
gave  off  a  year  ago. 

About  a  generation  ago  edict  boards  were 
posted  throughout  Japan  forbidding  the  teach¬ 
ing  or  .acceptance  of  Christianity.  Now  there 
are  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  adherents  of 
Christianity  in  Japan,  twelve  members  of  Par¬ 
liament  are  Christians,  and  the  Emperor  gave 
a  contribution  of  $5,000  to  the  work  of  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  with  the  army  in  the  Russian- 
Japanese  war. 

It  took  100  years  to  make  the  first  million 
Christian  converts ;  twelve  years  for  the  sec¬ 
ond  million,  and  at  the  present  rate  (about 
3,000  per  week)  the  third  million  will  be  won 
in  about  six  years. 

Six  years  ago  it  took  forty  days  to  go  by 


4 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE  ? 


ox-cart  from  Pekin  to  Hankow.  Now  the 
journey  can  be  made  in  a  day  and  a  half  in 
a  train  de  luxe.  The  railroads  built  in  China 
in  the  last  five  years  would  reach  almost  twice 
from  New  York  to  San  Francisco.  Recent 
political,  social  and  religious  changes  are  as 
great  as  the  material  development.  President 
Lowry,  of  Pekin  University,  says  that  China 
is  at  present  undergoing  “one  of  the  most 
sweeping  and  radical  revolutions  ever  effected 
in  any  great  nation  in  the  history  of  the 
world.” 

It  takes  less  time  to-day  to  go  from  Phila¬ 
delphia  to  China  than  it  did  two  generations 
ago  to  go  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg. 
“The  nineteenth  century  made  the  world  a 
neighborhood,  the  twentieth  must  make  it  a 
brotherhood.” 

“The  great  modern  educational  movement 
in  China  began  about  four  years  ago.  During 
this  time  more  schools  have  been  opened  in 
China  than  in  all  other  nations  of  the  earth 
combined.” 

Mr.  William  E.  Curtis,  the  well-known 
correspondent,  writes :  “During  the  next 
twenty-five  years  China  will  be  the  scene  of 
the  greatest  commercial,  industrial,  mineral 
and  every  other  form  of  activity  in  the  uni¬ 
verse.” 

Pandita  Ramabai,  of  India,  says:  “The; 
maj'ority  of  the  higher  classes  are  getting 
Western  secular  education,  which  is  under¬ 
mining  their  faith  in  their  ancestral  religion. 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE? 


5 


They  are  not  getting  anything  better  to  take 
the  place  of  the  old  religion  in  their  hearts, 
and  are,  therefore,  without  God,  without  hope, 
without  Christ,  going  down  socially  and  mor¬ 
ally,  and  becoming  very  irreligious.” 

In  view  of  the  great  material  and  political 
changes,  the  social  and  religious  ferment,  and 
the  present  plastic  conditions  in  the  non- 
Christian  world,  it  is  the  sober  conviction  of 
some  of  the  best  informed  and  most  earnest 
Christian  men  that  the  next  ten  years  may  be 
made  a  period  of  spiritual  evolution  in  the 
heathen  world,  and  through  it  also,  in  the 
Christian  world,  that  will  make  the  decade  one 
of  the  greatest  epochs  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church.  If,  however,  the  Christian 
Church  does  not  meet  the  situation  properly, 
the  decade  may  prove  one  of  spiritual  calamity 
which  it  may  take  centuries  to  undo. 

"‘And  other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not 
of  this  fold;  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they 
shall  hear  my  voice  and  there  shall  be  one 
fold  and  one  shepherd.”  John,  10:16. 

“A  defective  Christian  stewardship  stands 
more  in  the  way  of  Christ’s  advance  than  all 
the  obstacles  of  the  heathen  world.” 

“I  will  bless  thee,  and  be  thou  a  blessing.” 
Gen.,  12:2. 

Charles  James  Wills,  while  working  in 
the  slums  of  New  York,  asked  a  little  boy, 
“Is  your  father  a  Christian?”  The  boy  re¬ 
plied,  “Yes,  Mr.  Wills,  but  he  does  not  work 
at  it  much.”  “The  conversion  of  the  world 


6 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE? 


waits  for  the  conversion  of  the  laity  from  pas¬ 
sive  to  active  membership  in  Christ.” 

The  750  members  of  the  church  at 
Bolenge,  India,  support  seventy-six  native 
evangelists.  Twelve  years  ago  the  people  who 
are  now  members  at  Bol.enge  were  wild,  un¬ 
couth  savages. 

The  Christian  converts  in  heathen  lands 
gave  $5,249,405  in  1910  for  the  support  and 
extension  of  Christianity.  This  was  an 
average  of  $2.36  for  each  communicant  mem¬ 
ber. 

During  the  past  seven  years  over  1,000 
congregations  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian 
Church  have  been  visited  in  the  work  of  in¬ 
troducing  an  every  member  canvass  and  per¬ 
sonal  subscription  for  foreign  missions.  As 
a  result  of  this  experience,  Frank  A.  Brown, 
one  of  the  executive  secretaries,  writes :  “Ex¬ 
cepting  when  the  subscription  method  has 
been  introduced,  not  more  than  one  out  of 
every  four  of  the  women  of  the  church,  and 
not  more  than  one  out  of  every  eight  men 
of  our  church  have  ever  given  anything  to 
foreign  missions.  By  ‘anything’  is  meant  any 
amount  greater  than  5  or  10  cents  a  year 
given  at  the  annual  collection.  The  per¬ 
centage  of  givers  in  churches  when  the  can¬ 
vass  has  been  held  has  varied  from  25  per 
cent,  to  80  per  cent,  of  the  entire  membership.” 
From  1904  to  1908  this  denomination  increased 
in  membership  12  per  cent. ;  in  contribution 
to  foreign  missions,  112  per  cent.;  in  contri- 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE? 


7 


butions  to  home  missions,  241  per  cent. 

When  the  United  States  Government 
called  for  ten  legation  students  for  China 
there  were  250  applicants.  When  the  Govern¬ 
ment  called  for  500  teachers  for  the  Philip¬ 
pines  there  were  15,000  applicants. 

When  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,  the  late 
president  of  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
came  back  from  his  first  trip  around  the  world, 
delivering  lectures  to  non-Christian  audiences 
in  mission  fields,  he  said  to  the  students  of 
the  Seminary:  “Young  men,  speaking  from 
what  I  now  know  of  the  opportunities  of  serv¬ 
ice,  if  I  were  now  a  young  theological  student 
choosing  a  life  work,  I  should  become  a  for¬ 
eign  missionary.” 

“Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me,  both  in 
Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria, 
and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.” 
Acts,  1:8. 

We  learn  early  in  life  about  the  height  of 
the  mountains  and  the  extent  of  the  deserts 
in  Asia  and  Africa,  but  many  of  us  die  with¬ 
out  learning  or  caring  about  the  depth  of  the 
misery  and  extent  of  the  waste  in  the  lives 
of  our  fellowmen  in  those  countries. 

“Behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings  of  great 
joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  people.”  Luke,  2:10. 

Many  thousands  of  men  and  millions  of 
money  are  employed  to  reclaim  desert  lands — 
to  make  them  blossom  and  be  fruitful.  This 
work  is  well  worth  while.  But  how  much 
more  worth  while  it  should  be  to  make  spirit- 


8 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE? 


ually  parched  and  desert  lives  to  blossom  and 
rejoice  and  be  fruitful  in  Christian  service. 

“I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life,  and 
that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly.” 
John,  10:10. 

How  cheaply  life  is  held  by  some  non- 
Christian  nations  is  illustrated  by  the  follow¬ 
ing  statement  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  (Lit.  Digest, 
Dec.  3,  1910),  in  speaking  of  the  atrocities  of 
the  Mahdists,  a  sect  of  Mohammedans,  in  the 
Sudan :  “Theirs  was  a  cruelty  of  which  we 
in  our  lives  can  form  no  realization.  *  *  * 

All  children  were  killed  except  as  the  gov¬ 
ernment  took  possession.  I  would  come  upon 
the  traces  of  communities  where  every  living 
being  had  been  killed.  The  figures  will  show 
this,  that  out  of  about  ten  millions  of  people 
nearly  seven,  millions  were  killed  during  the 
years  of  the  Mahdi  uprising — that  is  what 
missionary  effort  saved  Uganda  from.  I  do 
wish  that  the  well-meaning  people  who  laugh 
or  decry  missionary  work  could  realize  what 
missionary  work  has  done  right  there  in 
middle  Africa.” 

More  people  die  in  India  of  fevers  in  a 
year  than  live  in  New  York  City,  and  these 
fevers  are  largely  the  result  of  unsanitary 
conditions. 

“To  know  the  need  should  prompt  the 
deed.” — Mary  Lyon. 

Lloyd-George,  the  British  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  in  speaking  of  the  competition 
in  armaments  between  the  various  countries  of 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE  ? 


9 


the  world,  said  :  “The  countries  of  the  world 
are  spending  annually  $2,250,000,000  upon  this 
machinery  of  destruction;’  “Christian  nations 
are  spending  only  about  1  per  cent,  of  this 
amount  on  foreign  missions,  yet  missions  are 
doing  far  more  to  promote  peace  and  brother¬ 
hood  than  bayonets  and  battleships  can 
ever  do.” 

Samuel  L.  Capen,  LL.D.,  in  a  recent  ad¬ 
dress  said,  “I  have  heard  the  public  statements 
of  an  official  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
America,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  South, 
and  two  officials  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  to 
the  effect  that  in  their  judgment  the  Lay¬ 
men’s  Missionary  Movement  was  the  greatest 
religious  movement  since  the  Reformation  of 
the  sixteenth  century.” 

The  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement  was 
inaugurated  in  the  city  of  Toronto  in  1907. 
The  missionary  contributions  of  the  Protes¬ 
tant  churches  of  Toronto  were  $175,000  for 
that  year;  $363,700  for  the  next  year,  and 
$410,773  for  last  year.  The  average  contri¬ 
butions  per  capita  were :  Presbyterian,  $5.20 ; 
Methodist,  $5.50;  Anglican,  $4.25;  Congrega¬ 
tional,  $4.02 ;  Baptist,  $7.75,  and  the  Mission¬ 
ary  Tabernacle,  with  80  members,  $24.69  per 
member.  The  amount  set  for  next  year  is 
$500,000. 

Rev.  D.  M.  Stearns,  pastor  of  the  Church 
of  the  Atonement,  Germantown,  Pa.,  says,  “Our 
main  business,  both  at  church  and  Bible 
classes,  -is  Bible  study  and  missions.  Our 


10 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE  ? 


motto  is •  ‘To  know  Him  and  to  make  Him 
known.’  The  contribution  of  this  congre¬ 
gation  for  missions  in  1909  was  $8,426,  an 
average  of  about  $50  per  member.  *For  four¬ 
teen  years  the  congregation  has  averaged 
about  $6,800  per  year  for  missions.” 

“The  Christian  ideal  of  life  is  the  highest 
ideal.  If  the  Christian  ideal  is  worthy  to  be 
followed  in  America,  it  is  worthy  to  be  pre¬ 
sented  in  every  land.” — William  Jennings 
Bryan. 

Wallace,  the  English  scientist,  in  writing 
about  the  Celebes  Islands,  says :  “The  mission¬ 
aries  have  much  to  be  proud  of  in  this  country. 
Forty  years  ago  the  country  was  a  wilderness, 
the  people  naked  savages,  furnishing  their 
rude  homes  with  human  heads.  Now  it  is  a 
garden.” 

“No  more  effective  testimony  to  the  social 
benefits  of  Christian  missions  could  be  given 
than  the  contrast  between  two  villages — the 
one  heathen  and  the  other  Christian.  In  the 
heathen  village  the  garbage  is  in  the  street, 
the  houses  are  in  a  more  or  less  tumble-down 
condition,  the  roofs  are  awry  and  full  of 
leaks,  the  children  run  naked,  the  women  are 
in  rags,  dirt  is  omnipresent,  vice  is  written  on 
most  of  the  countenances,  hopelessness  over¬ 
casts  the  faces  of  the  many,  and  absurd  cus¬ 
tom  with  its  counterpart  of  superstition  is 
everywhere  rife.  In  the  Christian  village  the 
house  may  be  no  larger,  but  it  will  be  clean ; 
the  toil  may  be  no  more  remunerative,  but 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE  ? 


11 


it  will  be  more  persistent ;  the  children  will  be 
clothed  and  the  women  neat  in  the  native  gar¬ 
ments.  The  village  street  no  longer  reeks  with 
filth,  and  an  angle  of  uprightness  has  seized 
upon  things ;  faces  take  on  a  new  light  and 
hope  is  in  every  countenance.  Worship  has 
been  turned  from  the  insanities  of  mutilation 
and  ascetic  denial  to  the  sweet  reasonableness 
of  praise  and  prayer  and  the  help  of  fellow- 
man.” 

Sir  W.  Mackworth  Young,  after  his  re¬ 
turn  to  Great  Britain  from  the  Lieutenant- 
Governorship  of  the  Punjab,  said:  “As  a  busi¬ 
ness  man  speaking  to  business  men,  I  am  pre¬ 
pared  to  say  that  the  work  which  has  been 
done  by  missionary  agency  in  India  exceeds 
in  importance  all  that  has  been  done,  and 
much  has  been  done,  by  the  British  Govern¬ 
ment  in  India  since  its  commencement.” 

The  Foreign  Department  of  the  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  held  a  remark¬ 
able  conference  on  the  20th  of  last  October  in 
the  East  Room  of  the  White  House.  More 
than  200  representative  citizens  from  all  parts 
of  the  continent  were  present.  Mr.  John  R. 
Mott,  who  conducted  the  conference,  an¬ 
nounced  that  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  For¬ 
eign  Department  to  send  out  fifty-three  sec¬ 
retaries  during  the  next  three  years  and  to 
erect  forty-nine  buildings  at  a  cost  of  $1,015,- 
000.  The  required  amount  was  substantially 
pledged  and  the  success  of  the  proposed  work 
assured. 


12 


IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE? 


“Know  and  you  will  feel ;  know,  and  you 
will  pray;  know,  and  you  will  help.  \ou 
will  be  ashamed  of  the  sluggishness  of  the 
isolation,  of  the  selfishness  which  has  made 
you  think  only  of  your  own  people  and  your 
father’s  house.” — Dean  Vaughan. 


Much  of  the  above  information  has  been 
gleaned  from  “Men  and  Missions,”  a  monthly 
paper  which  should  be  read  by  every  one  who 
is  interested  in  missions,  and  especially  by 
such  as  are  not  interested  in  missions.  It  is 
published  by  the  Laymen’s  Missionary  Move* 
ment,  1  Madison  Avenue,  New  York.  Sub¬ 
scription,  fifty  cents  per  year. 


